Where a Kid Can Be a...Wait a Minute

     Since I am currently in my single digit week countdown until the arrival of Baby G, I spend a lot of time reading about kids.  I have to admit, I enjoy reading parenting blogs and articles, some of them are quite informative and some of them make me scratch my head and worry about the sanity of some people.
    One of the big hot topics in parenting that I have seen is gender neutrality or "Don't let your little girl like pink or she will be inferior to boys for the rest of her life" and "Don't make your little boy play with trucks, it will just encourage him to be a boy and that demeans women."  I'd like to say I'm making this stuff up but it's out there.

• http://www.autostraddle.com/canadian-parents-raise-gender-neutral-baby-by-not-revealing-its-sex-90186/ : This family is raising their child "genderless" They refuse to acknowledge whether their child has boy parts or girl parts.  I wonder what pronouns they use? 
• http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/is-your-child-s-halloween-costume-sending-the-wrong-message--195430588.html: These parents are complaining that a halloween costume for girls is not the same as the one for boys.  It's pink and is therefore disempowering.  If your girl likes pink then she's just pushed feminism back 50 years, dang it!
• http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/behavioral/avoiding-gender-stereotypes/?page=1: This is an article for parents to guide their kids into not having stereotypical behavior.  Some of it is interesting and they make good points but there's an underlying message that acting "too girly" or "too boyish" is bad.  I think that is an even greater disservice because there is nothing wrong with being a girl and there is nothing wrong with being a boy.  Sheesh.

     What ever happened to letting kids just be a kid?  I'm pretty sure little Bobby isn't lying awake at night worrying about whether or not playing house with his sister, using his dinosaur action figures as children, is going to make him less of a man or a he-man woman hater.  Little Kimmy is just fine dreaming about the next day when her and her friends are going to play ninja warriors on the trampoline wearing their favorite super hero capes, complete with sparkly tiaras and mom's old lipstick.      My point is that Kids. Don't. Care.  They just want to play and have fun.  They don't care about gender stereotypes.  It's the grown ups who have the problem.  Are there gender stereotypes out there?  Sure, but who put them there?  I think instead of worrying so much about whether or not your child is following a stereotype and trying to "correct" their behavior, I think it's more important to teach our children to play nice.  Be kind to others.  Use their imagination.  Let them know you love them.  Most importantly, be with them.  Turn off the media, tune out the so-called experts and just enjoy your kiddos the way they are. Who knows, you may even get out your own super hero cape and bust out that sparkly tiara, I know I will.

Just a thought...

P.S. I used to play G.I. Joes with my brother and he would play puppies with me.  We both turned out just fine:)